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Halloween Fun!

This won’t be long, but it’s certainly long overdue! My phone is having issues and I️ was afraid I’d lose these pictures and video so I’m uploading now without editing or anything else. Hope family enjoys our little snippets of fun:

https://youtu.be/zLtwHk0GtnA

This doesn’t show how much Asher absolutely loved his costume that Daddy made (Mommy was supervisor?! I’m a better manager than worker, that’s for sure!), or how he starting yelling at EVeRY house, “hey, want to see me transform?!” And “Happy Halloween!” on his way out. That boy is sweeter every day.

And Selah (Moana) is so grown up, it seems impossible to this mama’s heart! How she is this old and independent is beyond me. I️ know I’m partial, but I️ also think she’s pretty beautiful inside and out!

Happy Halloween, friends and fam!

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Asherisms

Well, it looks like Asher is our inspirational speaker of the bunch!  Today’s conversation with one of the college girls who lives with us & helps run the kids around (who is also starting her first year teaching kindergarten), in her words:

“Asher said the cutest thing today. In the car he asked if I was nervous to teach. I told him a little bit. He said he used to get nervous for preschool but one day he decided not to be nervous and “it changed his life and it can change your life too”.

Love that kid! He loves to cheer people up and encourage them, and he also likes when people do the same to him.  It’s funny how their little personalities develop.  He’s also very thoughtful and always asks how my day was and how I’m feeling; definitely my more sensitive of the two.  It’s so sweet to this Mama’s heart! 

Here a few pics from the weekend (I’ll post more later, but these are of him this weekend at the lake):


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Haircut!

Long story with not much time, but our nanny decides to cut Asher’s bangs without asking – while he was growing his hair out – which necessitated a hair cut.  So, I’m very big on giving my kids control over what they can have control over…and hair is one of them.  So, Jesse took Asher to the barber yesterday and let him pick his style.  Mohawk it was!  And I think it turned out pretty cute myself.

I also took some ‘after’ shots when we were back home (with a popsicle treat, after a quick beach trip), and I know I’m biased, but here’s a pretty handsome kiddo:


This morning, first thing, he asks: Mama!  Is my Mohawk still here?  Am I still so handsome!

And of course, my reply, yes, baby boy, you are still so, so handsome, with or without the mohawk, because being handsome has more to do with your heart than your hair.  But yes, mohawk is still there, and you look great.

❤️

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National Donut Day

It may seem like a consumer holiday, but ask Asher and he’s a fan!  National donut day was right up there with Christmas for this kid, lover of all things ‘donut’!  

It’s funny, as a parent, the biggest joy comes from watching my kids experience something wholeheartedly that brings them great joy.  I guess you could say Donut day was one of those things!   He even knew the exact donut store he wanted – he’s something of a Donut connoisseur – and you can tell from the pics that it was worthy of finger-licking!  


Please excuse his mouth open eating (I think I automatically say “close your mouth” maybe three thousand times a week), by I couldn’t fail to catch his enthusiasm with a short video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4zzYAIq_T8

Happy National Donut Day, all!

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Memorial Beach Day

We’re not even done with the weekend but I had to post a few videos of the beach day yesterday.  Our kids are having so much more fun at the beach lately, which in turn makes it that much more fun for us too.  Asher finally will play in the waves (ok, ‘in the waves’ is even being generous…he’ll touch his toes in the water at least)…it only took him 4 years to warm up to it (who’s kid is this?!).  But no matter, at least we were diligent 😂.  Here’s yesterday (he decided no pants was the way to go):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V88cxIWwT5Q
What a great view! 😉

The remainder of the weekend was no less fun – BBQ & backyard s’mores with friends, then water park at Lake Casitas to finish it off!


I love summer!  And it’s just the beginning! (More to come soon – this was a start of an old post!)

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Asherisms & Selahisms

Our (sorta sweet) fight this morning:

Mom:  Asher, what do you want to be when you grow up?

Asher:  a knight.

Mom: oh? That seems dangerous.

Asher: but mom, I’d be big and tall.  And I want to protect Selah.  I have lots of tricky karate moves.  

(Who knew knights do karate?!)

Mom:  that’s a sweet brother, bubba.

Selah:  I don’t need protecting.  

(Which proceeded to make Asher angry and pout, and Mommy kinda proud of both of them 😉).

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Nite Moves

There’s a possibility that I can be ambitious on the sign-ups and weak on the execution for some of our family activities…you know, if I’m being honest.  I just picture us having this fun, athletic family who tackles anything.  Which sometimes we totally are; and other times it’s actually a disaster of complaining and prodding and nothing how it was in my head, and we all end up mad and disappointed (but with pictures that likely make my memory of how awful it is fade fairly fast).  Again, just honest.

However, we are signed up as a family for a 5K in a few weeks with my parents, so I have been thinking that we should get out there and try it before it is a mess of complaining and general disaster conditions 😂.  Last week was a good practice opportunity – an event in Santa Barbara that seemed family friendly… and close to home in the event of the world ending (ie. our kids’ likely portrayal of the torture we make them endure called ‘exercise’).  

In addition to family, I also recruited unsuspecting work buddies, friends, and the girls we live with, and promptly handed the kids off to all of them while I jumped into the 1k swim to start off the night, vowing to catch them on the 5k run to follow.  


I have to say, the swim went better than I expected in my dinosaur of a wetsuit – and I loved the boost of proud energy I got from high-fiving Selah as she ran down the hill as I ran up. (The run started while I was racing, so I tried to catch them on the uphill, but she was too fast!).  Asher and Daddy made it to the turn around before I caught them, and Dad reported that he did at least 3/4 of the whole run on his own!  And we all ran through the finish line together – one proud, tired, happy family.  


I haven’t raced in a long time…actually, just about 8 years probably since it was at least a year prior to Selah being born.  I can’t say there’s any one reason I haven’t, but I can tell you that this group exercise program (Jenny Schatzle Program) that I’m doing motivated me to just get out and do it, no matter how messy it looked (in my head or in reality) or what the outcome was.  Exercise is my sanctuary and sanity – and this time I got to enjoy it with my favorites – and be reminded of a time gone by when I enjoyed swimming and running races too. And – bonus – it went so well I’d do it again!  (I can’t say the same for Selah, but Jesse and Asher seem to be game, so she might come around yet!).  

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Working at the Car Wash

In a recent effort to give the kids set “chores”, we’ve found that what works better for us is having “work time” designated in the weekend at some point.  That way we actually get accomplished what seems pressing at the time, and can assign the kids some sort of duty.  It’s a work in progress, I’ll tell you that 😉.

But, the other weekend, I had a pretty good helper in Asher that I took a few pictures I wanted to ‘preserve’ here because he thought it was (1) pretty cool his job was the hose, and (2) he also realized that “making rainbows” was a by product of this cool job…making the drying more of a challenge.  Nevertheless, we had fun…and my car actually ended up clean, even if it took longer than driving to the car wash 😉.

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Our Little Singer

Selah has been saying for weeks that she didn’t want to participate in her piano recital because last time was so scary.  This, of course, made my Mama heart sad that she’s clearly already growing up and growing out of her ‘performing’, for fear of people watching (or how she perceives herself – she kept saying when she watched it back that she doesn’t think she did well).  Jesse and I had done all we could to convince her, basically giving up, until yesterday she apparently told her piano teacher that she was now “in”.  And – the cutest part – she allegedly changed her mind because grandma was missing her “spring sing” next week, but would be able to make her recital!  (Note to Grandma – hope you’ve set aside June 3rd 😉!)

So, in preparation, her piano teacher and her chose a song for her to sing.  Spoiler alert: if anyone is coming to the recital, I will reveal the song and video of her practicing!

She hasn’t been projecting enough, so her teacher asked her friend Madeline to sit and watch, hoping Selah would be louder.  She’s getting there – it’s really sweet to watch the progress – and I was able to video (sorry it’s shaky – I was also trying to watch that Asher didn’t fall off the trampoline that was open – without yelling at him and ruining the video!  Also, her teacher stops her for some direction, but I filmed the entirety).  Here goes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyUczVbP2qE

I know it’s been a long time since posting, so I’ll try and update a bit more here for far-away family to capture our busy lives with kiddos!